1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to scanning device with capability of electronically imaging both sides of and scanning multiple forms of coded data from an ID document. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved ID scanning device and a scanning method capable of confirming the transparency and thickness of an ID card by measuring the amount of light that passes through at least one surface of an ID card and contrasting that with the amount of light that passes through the same surface of a reference or original ID document.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Subsequent to recent heightened security, government and private security measures have continued to increase worldwide. Consequently, there is a continued need for business and government security personnel to inspect and ascertain the identification cards of employees and citizens and to ascertain their authenticity and scope. Further, bars and nightclubs and liquor stores which serve alcohol are under a constant threat of fines and loss of their liquor license should they serve alcohol to an individual who is underage. Inspecting the identification of patrons of such establishments and validating its authenticity is therefore an important daily task.
However, with the advent of ever more advanced home and business computers and ever more accurate and high definition color printers, forging and manufacturing false identification cards, passports, employment identification cards, and drivers' licenses and the like has become easier. While forging a driver's license a decade ago was a cut and paste type of an operation which would generally be laminated to appear authentic, current computers and printers with appropriate graphic reproduction software place the ability to create genuine appearing, yet forged identification documents, in the hands of teenagers.
As a consequence, there is an ever more pressing need for business owners, bar and liquor store owners, banks, and government employees such as the TSA checking airline passengers, to be able to read and visually ascertain the authenticity and current validity of a presented piece of identification. Documents such as drivers' licenses in the past decade have included many types of security and authenticity factors which are imprinted directly onto the identification card. These can be inks that fluoresce, inks that are visible only under certain light spectrums, hidden indica in identification photos, printed bar codes, and magnetic strips which are encoded. Frequently a plurality of these types of security and authenticity measures are imprinted on both sides of a driver's license or ID and can serve to validate that the ID is current and can authenticate the ID as validly issued rather than forged.
However, presently, most small businesses such as a bar or restaurant do not have the personnel trained to spot forgeries through comparison of imprinted authenticity and validity markers. Further, because the equipment to read and discern the various different types of security features is both bulky and expensive, business and even government venues do not employ it. Instead, businesses and government employees rely on the eye of a bouncer or gatekeeper at a restaurant or bar, and government relies on personnel such as a counter clerk or TSA agent, both of whom with little training and less equipment must try and spot forged identifications without the aid of variable light wavelengths and magnetic and optical strip readers and comparison of duplicate information on each.
One major impediment in imaging and detecting the authenticity and current validity of drivers' licenses and identification cards using conventional scanning machinery is the fact that they are stiff by nature due to their need for longevity. Most two sided document readers and imagers depend on running the document being scanned through a serpentine path in the device on a track through curves and ejecting it at the end of the serpentine path. While traversing this path, the card is optically viewed in a number of positions to try and image spectrum viewable security features for comparison. Being short and stiff, such cards are not well adapted to follow the conventional serpentine path required for imaging two sides. Further, such card readers tend to be very bulky due to the elaborate pathways the card must follow and the different multiple imaging stations along the path. Adding to the problem with such conventional imaging devices is that CCD's and CMOS-style digital imaging chips are expensive. Consequently employing two to image both sides of a document doubles the cost. Additionally two independent image capturing components require a doubling of calibration, lighting, and double the amount of things that can go wrong.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need for an imaging device that will scan both sides of either a flexible or relatively stiff identification card such as a driver's license or credit card style ID, which has a reduced size and footprint in use at such venues as an airport, bar, or company or government building point of entry. Such a device should provide for imaging of both sides of the card or document concurrently by a single electronic imaging device to thereby reduce costs and initial and ongoing calibration requirements. Such a device, due to the nature of people standing in lines and crowds where the identification is generally checked, and credit cards employed, should serve to increase speed through a checkpoint rather than slowing it as is the result with conventional devices. Further, such a device should eliminate the serpentine path for the document being checked and should provide the shortest and fastest path in and out of the device as is possible while achieving concurrent images of both sides of the document under a plurality of illumination spectrums required to image authenticity markings. Further, such a device should be especially well adapted to image both sides of a driver's license or ID card concurrently in a highly registered imaging between the two sides and to produce images that are easily readable and comparable on a video display for the user.
Because some user systems require information extracted from the machine-readable indicia as well as an image of the card, there is a need for a system capable of reading machine-readable indicia from an ID card as well as photographing the surface of the ID card in a single, compact package. The most convenient embodiment for checking modern ID cards would incorporate a magnetic strip reader alongside a digital camera. With this combination of coded indicia readers, a vendor or security personnel would be able to simply extract data from many ID cards, including any state driver's license issued in recent years.
Additionally, there is a benefit in scanning an ID card or document during multiple passes along an internal defined path. Different scanning devices could require different pass speeds and engaging certain scanners simultaneously could interfere with the quality provided by other scanners. For example, ID cards require a minimum pass velocity to energize a magnetic coil and read a magnetic strip, and this minimum magnetic strip velocity only narrowly overlaps with the maximum digital image capture velocity. Additionally, it would be impossible to simultaneously capture images of an ID card under multiple different lighting conditions, such as infrared, ultraviolet, and RGB (visible), as the sensor would pick up all of the reflected light rather than the specific desired frequency. It is possible to alternate two 2 frequencies of illumination during a single pass, but if more than two frequency captures are desired, an additional pass by the sensors could lower the illumination intensity or precise timing requirements. To allow optimal performance of all included scanners, more than one pass by the scanner assembly can be quite beneficial.
Also in light of the above, it is an additional object of the present invention to provide a device combining three popular machine-readable data options (e.g. magnetic strip, 2-D barcode, and RFID tags) and related variations, and further thereby providing an all-in-one peripheral for reading information from virtually any type of ID card, increasing both security and convenience in a smaller, cheaper package.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide a scanning device and method with a particular configuration suited for retrieving a jammed document of identification (ID) card.
As stated, these identification documents usually consist of several security features, hidden or visible, in order to reduce easy duplication. For instance, security features on identification documents like driver's license vary from State to State that includes but not limited to State Flags, Seals, or Department of Motor Vehicle's (DMV) logos. Further, all these distinct security features, and patterns are in microprints, different colors, fonts, etc. Many of these security features are not visible through naked eye and need either magnification under a light source or simply a light source. For instance, the driver's license of California State has words “CALIFORNIA USA” written on top left side of the card. The blue colored letters are uniform in font size, and underlined. For an inexperienced fraudster, it could be somewhat difficult to achieve the uniformity in color, and font size. However, a technological savvy fraudster may be able to imitate it easily and pass through the security checks done under a flashlight and naked eye or simple magnification.
As a result, there is a continued need of security measures that go beyond magnification of security features employed on such identification documents to inspect and verify identity to ascertain their authenticity. The transparency and thickness of an identification document is one such feature that is still very difficult to replicate. Also, the transparency level associated with different types of identification documents would vary but will remain the same for same type of documents. For instance, all drivers' licenses belonging to State of California will have same transparency level but would be different from the transparency level of insurance card or employment card. However, it would be difficult for security personnel to remember all the patterns employed on each document of each State, Company, or Country that contributes to the thickness or transparency of a document. Thus, there is a need for a system which after inspecting the document could verify the contents of it by contrasting them with the original contents of such document.
Bleed-through is a mechanism in which the ink or color from on side of the document seeps onto the other side of the document and the range of bleed can vary from faint to severe. Normally, bleed-through is considered a problem as it obscures the ink and makes reading of the text or image difficult. However, the inventors of the present invention have used bleed-through in a document to work in their favor. Thus, bleed-through of images and texts from one surface of the card onto the opposite surface of the card can determine the transparency level of the identification document. Also, it is important that the procedure to measure the transparency level of the identification document does not consume time, is inexpensive, and efficient.
The innovative feature of this invention is utilization of an aspect of bleed-through in a document that is considered a problem by many. Thus, measurement of bleed-though from one surface of the document onto the opposite surface is used to check its transparency, and/or thickness thereby verifying the authenticity of the identification card. Even a slight amount of alteration or forgery with the identification document would change the transparency level and such document will fail to pass the security check.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a security system that could measure the amount of light that passes from one surface of the ID card on the adjacent surface and contrast it with the amount of light that passed through in the original ID card issued by the manufacturer.